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Updated Windows Azure Pack VMRole Gallery Items for SQL Server 2012 SP1 and SQL Server 2014

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Hello Readers!

This past January, we published two Windows Azure Pack (WAP) VM Role gallery items for database workloads, including SQL Server 2012 SP1 and Oracle Database 12c, to complement the SQL Server 2012 gallery item already available at the time. Today, these sample SQL Server gallery items get an update, including a brand new one to celebrate the release of SQL Server 2014!

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You can find the updates/changes in the chart below, and more details on the requirements for each gallery item further down in this blog post.

 

List of SQL Server gallery items and their update status

(Updated) “Advanced” SQL Server 2012 SP1 Gallery Item

for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2

This gallery item leverages an unattended SQL Server setup to provide more features like deployment of named instances, optional database creation, optional T-SQL and .SQL execution, additional user/group added to the administrators role.

New with this release:

  • Windows Server 2012 R2 support for the guest OS
  • Added an option to pick if the IP addressing should be static or dynamic. Previous hardcoded default was “dynamic”, meaning you needed an actual DHCP server, or use virtual networks (in which case there is a virtual switch extension that VMM installs that responds to the DHCP request with a static IP address from a VMM pool)
  • Updated tags requirements for more clarity (see requirements below), and a few minor changes within the resource extension

Screenshots of this gallery item can be found in the original blog post here.

(New) “Advanced” SQL Server 2014 Gallery Item

for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2

Features are the same as the previous gallery item, this time for SQL Server 2014.

(Updated) “Sysprepped” SQL Server 2012 SP1 Gallery Item

for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2

This is an update to the original SQL Server 2012 gallery item, that uses an OS disk with a sysprepped version of SQL Server 2012 SP1.

New with this release:

  • The gallery items surfaces the SQL Server instance name as a parameter, enabling named instance support. If you do not change the parameter, a default MSSQLSERVER instance will still be configured
  • The gallery item surfaces the Sysprepped SQL instance ID as a parameter, in case you have an OS disk using a different name for the instance ID (it was set to SYSPREPSQL in the previous release)
  • The Media Source parameter is also surfaced, if needed (but you should not need to change it)
  • It is now also possible to pick the IP addressing (dynamic or static), as with the “advanced” gallery items.
  • Updated instructions to work with Windows Server 2012 R2 (previous release was created for the preview version of Windows Server 2012 R2)

The sysprepped gallery item has the benefit of deploying very fast, especially in a Windows Azure Pack (WAP) environment leveraging parenting disks out of the box. Should you need advanced features like database creation, T-SQL execution, etc. or anything that goes beyond SQL Server sysprep support and that you want to parameterize in the template for your tenants, you can use the “advanced” gallery items. Both types of templates can be imported at the same time in a WAP environment.

We’re also looking at providing a SQL Server 2014 version of this sample gallery item.

Note : The Oracle DB 12c Gallery Item was unchanged and is still available here , along with screenshots and requirements. This gallery item leverages an Oracle DB 12c unattended installation in Windows Server 2012 to deploy the database software and an optional database and/or schema.

Download and Instructions

Download location

“Advanced” SQL Server 2012 SP1 VMRole Gallery Item

v1.0.0.5

“Advanced” SQL Server 2014 VMRole Gallery Item

v1.0.0.5

“Sysprepped” SQL Server 2012 SP1 VMRole Gallery Item

v1.0.0.2

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Instructions

For these gallery items, the Resource Extension (RESEXTPKG file) should be imported into System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, and the Resource Definition (RESDEFPKG file) should be imported from the Windows Azure Pack (WAP) administration portal and added to a plan. A summary of each gallery item’s specific requirements for the OS and data disks is provided below, with full details displayed on the download page for each gallery item and also in the README file in each download package.

The actual way to prepare these requirements – including tagging the OS disks and assigning the right properties to data disks - are explained in this overall document. Or you could use the Gallery Resource Import Tool (GRIT) , if you like to keep things simple Smile GRIT will discover all these requirements – except the compatible operating systems versions – and will configure them for you, as well as import the gallery resource extension and definition.

Requirements

Packages

  • Archive - SQLServer2012_VMRole_1005.zip
  • Resource Extension Package - .\SQLServer2012.resextpkg
  • Resource Definition Package - .\SQLServer2012.resdefpkg

Virtual Hard Disk (OS)

  • Configuration– install one the following software:
    • Windows Server 2012, also adding the .NET Framework 3.5 feature
    • Windows Server 2012 R2, also adding the .NET Framework 3.5 feature
  • Operating System- use one of the following:
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Standard
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
  • Familyname– consider the following values for Familyname:
    • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 Standard
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
  • Tags– The OS disk should at least include the following tags (it can have more tags):
    • WindowsServer2012
    • .NET3.5
  • Virtualization Platform– set to the following value
    • Microsoft Hyper-V

Data Disk –

  • Configuration - Copy the SQL Server 2012 SP1 media in to a new folder named “SQL2012SP1”. That folder should contain SETUP.EXE.  Note : If needed, the option to select another folder is also provided when running the Gallery Item wizard.
  • Operating Sytem - Set to "None".
  • Familyname and Release- The following values are required.
    • SQLServerDataDisk
    • 11.1.0.0
  • Tags - No tags are required.

 

Sample disks configurations screenshots

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OS disk running Windows Server 2012

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OS disk running Windows Server 2012 R2

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Data Disk

Note : OS disk requirements are the same for the “advanced” SQL Server 2012 SP1 and “advanced” SQL Server 2014 gallery items

Packages

  • Archive - SQLServer2014_VMRole_1005.zip
  • Resource Extension Package - .\SQLServer2014.resextpkg
  • Resource Definition Package - .\SQLServer2014.resdefpkg

Virtual Hard Disk (OS)

  • Configuration– install one the following software:
    • Windows Server 2012, also adding the .NET Framework 3.5 feature
    • Windows Server 2012 R2, also adding the .NET Framework 3.5 feature
  • Operating System- use one of the following:
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Standard
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
  • Familyname– consider the following values for Familyname:
    • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 Standard
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
  • Tags– The OS disk should at least include the following tags (it can have more tags):
    • WindowsServer2012
    • .NET3.5
  • Virtualization Platform– set to the following value
    • Microsoft Hyper-V

Data Disk

  • Configuration - Copy the SQL Server 2014 media in to a new folder named “SQL2014”. That folder should contain SETUP.EXE.  Note : If needed, the option to select another folder is also provided when running the Gallery Item wizard.
  • Operating Sytem - Set to "None".
  • Familyname and Release- The following values are required.
    • SQLServerDataDisk
    • 12.0.0.0
  • Tags - No tags are required.

 

Sample disks configurations screenshots

(Note : OS disk screenshots are not provided since they are the same as the “advanced” SQL Server 2012 SP1 gallery item)

 

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Data Disk

Packages

  • Archive – SQLServer2012Sysprep_VMRole_1002.zip
  • Resource Extension Package - .\SQLServer2012.resextpkg
  • Resource Definition Package - .\SQLServer2012Domain.resdefpkg (to join an Active Directory domain)
  • Resource Definition Package - .\SQLServer2012Workgroup.resdefpkg (to join a workgroup)

Virtual Hard Disk (OS)

  • Configuration– install one of the following software:
    • Windows Server 2012, including a SQL Server 2012 SP1 prepared image
    • Windows Server 2012 R2, including a SQL Server 2012 SP1 prepared image
  • Operating System- use one of the following:
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
    • 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Standard
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
    • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
  • Familyname – consider the following values for Familyname:
  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with SQL Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 Standard with SQL Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter with SQL Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard with SQL Server 2012
  • Tags– The OS disk should at least include the following tags (it can have more tags):
    • MicrosoftSQLServer2012
  • Virtualization Platform– set to the following value
    • Microsoft Hyper-V

Data Disk – no data disk is needed for this gallery item

 

Sample disks configurations screenshots

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OS disk running Windows Server 2012

 

Thank you for reading this post and our blog, we hope you will find these samples useful!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi DG
    Those templates are VM Roles, and they would work with Generation 1 VMs
    There are more details on VMM and Generation 2 support here:
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2014/03/05/details-on-generation-2-virtual-machines-and-using-them-in-vmm-2012-r2.aspx
    Thanks
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Mdig

    We're not planning short term updates to these samples, but you could open the existing ones with the VMRole Authoring Tool, update them for SP2 and to add support for additional SQL Server features.

    With the "advanced" version, you would likely just have to replace the source media in the data disk with a SP2-level media, and use an updated Unattended.ini file (remember you can "record" one using SQL Server setup).

    With the "sysprepped" version, you would use an image including SQL Sever sysprepped at the SP2 level. You may have to add some custom scripting though, as I'm not sure if the SQL Server specialization features from VMM allows to specialize Analysis Services (maybe just the Database Engine). As an alternative, you could also just use you own sysprepped image with SQL Server included, and have the "complete image" phase run through a custom script in the VMRole.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi. This is useful stuff. Will you be publishing an update that works with SQL Server 2012 SP2? We're particularly interested in being able to provided a sysprep'd version containing Database and Analysis Services,
  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2014
    Hi
    Thank you for your post. Should the VM Template be a gen1 or gen2 VM?
    thx